On 2/23/07, Erik Moeller erik@wikimedia.org wrote:
On 2/20/07, Gregory Maxwell gmaxwell@gmail.com wrote:
Erik, if a Flickr user misclicked on the dropdown and selected the wrong license unknowingly and unintentionally they did not make a valid release under that license.
There is no dropdown on the upload screen. Licensing is a user preference, and not an easy to find one (I just took about 3 minutes to find it again, even though I've been there several times -- it's under "Your account|Privacy & Permissions|Defaults for new uploads").
I would agree that it's vanishingly unlikely that a Flickr user would accidentally select a Creative Commons license rather than 'All rights reserved'. The latter is the default; changing the upload default isn't the most obvious thing in the Flickr interface, as Erik says. Changing the license on an image post-update is easier, but again unlikely to be done accidentally.
I suspect that what Greg is concerned about is that someone may intend a CC license but inadvertently select one that is different from the one they intended, or one they do not understand the implications of.
Since no compensation has been given to the Flickr user, no implied contract exists and thus we don't have that protection against accidental mis-licensing as Greg says. I'd suspect Wikipedia and our user who uploaded it would be fairly protected against any lawsuit for damages, but it would still be an irritation for all.
I suspect you're both right here; Erik, that checking the status of FlickrLickr images is a lower priority, and Greg, that it's still ideally worth doing.
-Matt